Friday, February 8, 2013

Awhile back I gave a full tour of our kitchen cabinets, and years later they are almost identical to the way they were then, and are functioning quite well for us. And although we have intentions of doing a kitchen reno in the near future, I still have a few problem areas in the kitchen that I am looking forward to addressing this month. Some bigger than others, but all things that will hopefully be helpful in the most commonly used area of the home.

One of the ways I looked at this monthly challenge, was to question how we are utilizing the space in our kitchen, and making sure that "like" or common items are stored together. We are doing a pretty good job at this for the most part, but like I said, there are some areas for improvement. One being my baking items.

Now I don't mean the flours, sugars and oils since those have been all stored together in our spice cabinet for years and are doing well there. And our baking utensils are nicely divided in drawers near the stove, so high fives for that being another successful organizing project in the kitchen.

But everything else, like the cookie cutters, the frosting, the sprinkles and cupcake liners.... all those little "extras" that come with baking special treats every once in awhile. Well, those items didn't have a designated space, and there were times when I was over-purchasing items I already had since I didn't always know what I had. Frosting tubes were in the dry food cabinet, food coloring, candles and sprinkles were in the spice cabinet and the cookies cutters... you will never guess it.... in the storage ottomans in our living room where the craft bins live.... makes total sense right?! Ha!

So I gathered all the supplies and placed them on our kitchen table.

I knew exactly where all of these goodies should reside, happily together. In a drawer that was acting oh so effectively holding one single set of candles...

The drawer is in our dining room buffet, which is directly across from our kitchen, and is where we store overflow items and small appliances. The whole thing needs some organizing love, but I am taking this challenge one idea and drawer at a time.

Because I only bake special treats about once a month {and I shouldn't even be allowed to do that, my baking is less than awesome}, my thinking was that when baking day comes around, I could easily just grab the drawer out of the sideboard and take it over to the kitchen counter.

I started by removing the drawer, cleaning it out, lining it for easy cleaning, and popping in two bins I found at the dollar section at Target.

That dollar spot keeps saving the day with my drawer organizing! These bins couldn't have fit any better, it was like they were meant to be!

The next step was to continue to create more drawer dividers, so I scoured our home for a box that would be the perfect size....

I still had space to spare and I knew I had smaller items that needed some dividing, so back to the searching of the home I went...

Jell-o cups were the winning solution. I transferred the contents of the Jell-o cups to a covered dish and cleaned them out. I now had all of the dividers I needed and began placing items into the drawer.

The cookie cutters fit perfectly in the first box divider I found from Target...

And my newly covered box was the perfect solution for my cupcake liners!

My favorite part of the whole project are the Jell-o cups. They worked so wonderfully for dividing the candles and food coloring.

And just when I was prematurely happy dancing about my newly created and organized baking drawer... I went to shut the drawer and fail.

The tubs of sprinkles didn't fit and allow the drawer to close all the way. The angle of them was too tall and there just wasn't another great way to place them inside the drawer as is. Boo. Goes to show that organizing takes a little trial and error and doesn't always work out perfectly the first time around.

So, more searching around the house and a few small mason jars later...

And the drawer was now closing just fine and this project was called complete!

It feels good to have a designated place for all of my baking items, and inspired me to instantly start perusing Pinterest for some fabulous Valentine treats to create.

So what was your first kitchen project this month? Anyone else have a baking drawer or basket?

75 comments:

AHHHH love it! I have a baking drawer too! One for baking, one for chocolate, and one for nuts and dried fruit b/c apparently I have every type imaginable and needed a three-drawer little cart in my pantry for it!

Oh good grief, just when I think I've got it all organized, you come along with another great idea. I just finished bottling up a bunch of herbs. Now I'm going to have to tackle my 3-drawer stand where I keep baking supplies, all because of you. (Really, thanks, Jen 😊)

I've used your paper covered box idea in so many places! I love seeing all the different places you put yours. Granted, I don't bake hardly at all (ruined snap-and-bake cookies once, true story) but I've got desk supplies out the wahzoo and love this system!

Love it, although my baking draw would have to be 3x as big ( I love to bake) downside is space. I have small IKEA jars for all my spices (I keep my baking ones on the baking shelf), sprinkles etc. Like your jello cups, I used some old decorative cups to store things in but do need to find some cheap containers!

Jen!! This couldn't come at a more perfect time...my baking/treat making supplies are curretnly teetering on a top shelf of a cabinet that I can't even hardly reach let alone reach into the back of it. I too have an unused buffet drawer that could work...that'll give me something to work on this weekend!Melanie

I love those Target boxes! We got a bunch of the black and white ones to use for our wedding last month. We added gold ribbon, and gold tissue paper (to cover the pink insides) to make holders for our Mad Libs guestbook sheets. This is a great way to repurpose the 16 or so that are currently wasting space on our guest bed!

Well Jen you did it again! You think of everything! I so must do this! I have all of my baking stuff in with my craft room, now I defiantly want to move all to kitchen and do this! Thanks again for another fabulous idea!

I am still working on my school paperwork storage boxes for the boys and the cords & cables storage box! I can't keep up! Now I have to organize and prettify by baking cupboard too. At least my pantry and spices are already done.

What do you use as shelf liner or drawer liners? I really want cute liners for my pantry shelves but the stores near me only have ugly contact paper (solid beige, etc) or clear paper. I would love to know where you buy yours.

Just wanted to say thanks for being so honest. So many organizing sites are just too perfect, & use way too many bought items. Those of us on fixed incomes are always looking for clever- & let's face it- cheap, organizing ideas.Thanks!

Love the way this turned out! Makes me want to bake! I'm with a couple of others, I need some empty drawers!! I've started organizing my cooking utensil drawer. Elimated a lot!! Bought a new divider from the container store and I'm loving how easy it is to grab what I need! Thanks for you terrific ideas and inspiration!

I want a baking drawer now! I worry that it would force me to bake more, and Partner wouldn't be happy to be drown by all the cakes and cupcakes I'd do... Maybe, after all, it is a good thing I don't have one. Yours looks awesome.

Blogger defaults to your local country. I'm in New Zealand so it come up as iheartorganizing.blogspot.co.nz. If you're in the UK it will come up as .co.uk and if you're in the USA it will come up with .com. Same applies to every Blogger blog.

I have 2 clear boxes in my corner cupboard. One has Christmas candles (found out the hard way that they can't be stored in the garage (near the roof) and the other one is all my baking stuff. I hardly ever bake anything more complicated than a brownie or cake mix. I do want to get stuff to learn how to do decorative frosting. On the wish list...

I have two cabinets devoted to baking. I took a picture of everything I have--chocolate molds, cupcake liners, treat bags, cookie cutters, etc. and placed the pictures in a folder on my computer. I just check the pictures to make sure I have the supplies I need before starting a baking "project". You've given me the itch to reorganize my baking supplies! :)

P.S. You are so lucky to have an empty drawer in your house! That would be very valuable real estate in my house!

I have been following your blog for about a month and it has inspired many crafty projects. I have been collecting empty food boxes to organize several drawers and am wondering where does one buy wipeable drawer paper? Thank you for your time.

All over the place :) For this drawer, I actually cut down an old vinyl place-mat and it worked perfect. I also find wipeable drawer liner at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Home Depot & Target. I did a post on it here as well: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2012/08/you-asked-wrapping-paper-wrap-up.html

I have a drawer for a lot of things: baking, vegetable prep, measuring cups and spoons, cooking utensils, serving utensils, etc. My baking drawer is full of things to use when baking from scratch. It is so much easier to do things when you can get organized this way. If you can't, try using baskets or bins.

cute cute cute!!! i just finished the kids bathroom cabinets, and I used little plastic bowls from the baby section of the dollar store for sloan's ponytail holders, etc...i was thrilled with my little idea! we have the same brain. :)

Jen, I am patting myself on the back because I, too, scored some of those little boxes in the Target dollar bin a few weeks ago--I bought them to help organize my gift wrapping area! I knew those things would come in handy! I love the dollar section!

I really did want to get started on the whole kitchen organizing project with you but unfortunately came down with the flu and ended up in bed for a few days. tomorrow is definitely the day! love how you organized this drawer I have the same exact problem with some of my overflow baking accessories will def. try something like this! xx. gigi. food and beauty blogger @ www.gigikkitchen.blogspot.com

Always love the way you do your fixits and organising. It's just beautiful! I do hope though that in your future kitchen you'll get more space - one thing I've discovered over the years is that no matter how much you reorganise your stuff, even if you personally don't buy things, all of a sudden people will gift you stuff at Christmases and birthdays which will then put everything into overflow again.

your prior post about using the boxes as drawer organizers has completely changed my life. I now am physically unable to discard any box--have to immediately cut it down and see where it might need to live. confession: I haven't covered them to make them pretty. I know that makes me lame, but I haven't had the paper and have so enjoyed (really!) getting some areas organized that I just forged ahead w/ boxes as is. What I have realized is that a lot of challenging situations in my life were really wearing me out and weighing me down, but just taking control of some tiny little areas (i.e., drawers) has made me feel so much better and less at the whim of a crazy life. So many thanks to you for the inspiration to get started.

Jen, I'm keen to join the organising challenge this month because my pantry is all over the place. Very similar to your baking items dilemma except mine is with everything and I cook everything from scratch. I've learnt to just put up with it these last 13 years since I've been in this house but enough is enough. Wish me luck.

Every since finding this site I can't seem to throw away another container. Boxes make great drawer dividers. Soup can covered in paper are great for little odds and ends. Formula cans are great becuase they are so big.

Anyway, one of my goals for this month is organizing my plastic storage containers. This weekend when my husband and I were at Sam's we found a set of 62pc Rubbermaid Take alongs and we agreed to do a complete switch out. I gave away most of my old stuff and now what use to be 2 whole shelves now takes up barely one. Yeah!! I wish I had taken Before and After shots but the after makes me so happy. Now on to the utensil drawers...

My first thing was the medicine cabin... I took all the things out and got few box from the candystore (those are really great... and FREE! Little bit of fancy paper and a cute label, that´s it!) and voila! Kids medicines and all the supplies, skin care products etc in one box and the other for adults. And then I made two more; first aid-box and the box for our boys sunscreens etc.

The next was the baking drawer and the candyboxes were just great for that too!Now I got about 30 boxes and have used those for everywhere! Fancy papers, cute labels and cabins are organized and all the trash is gone :)

I love this! My mom came last year and we went through every closet and drawer at my house to organize and purge for a yardsale. However, my baking drawer stayed as is. I now need to find a new solution for my spices so I'm going to move them from the clogged cabinet above the stove to the drawer where all my baking supplies are (actually: baked good decorating supplies...this is perfect and I'm going to use most of these!) she's coming back and I'm tackling my master closet and bathroom linen closet (so your march task is perfect!

Wow...I just discovered your blog...guess I'll be making a baking box today! No extra drawer space...but a small area in my pot cabinet. I do have all my baking supplies (mixes, etc) in a box in my pantry.

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